Henry Pike (Bowman, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—on behalf of the member for Groom, I move:

That this House:

(1) notes comments by the Minister for Home Affairs in the House on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 in regard to 'parents who just cannot afford to buy the groceries they need for their families... parents who are struggling terribly with rents... people who can't afford to fill their car up with petrol';

(2) further notes comments in the CommBank iQ Cost of Living Insights Report for November 2023 that:

(a) Australians are spending more on essentials such as insurance, medical costs and pharmacies, leaving less funds for purchase of discretionary items such as household goods and clothing; and

(b) younger Australians between 25 and 29 years old have been the hardest hit with a 5.1 per cent decline in their total spending, the only age group to decrease both discretionary and essential spending;

(3) recognises that under the Government:

(a) the costs of food, housing, electricity, insurance and gas have all increased;

(b) real spending power has been reduced; and

(c) younger Australians, with and without children, are being especially impacted by rising living costs;

(4) condemns the Government for the current cost of living crisis which is due to the Government's mismanagement of the economy and failure to adequately address high inflation and increased interest rates; and

(5) calls on the Government to immediately develop and implement sensible economic policies to address Australia's cost of living crisis which is hurting all Australians.

In the almost two years since the last election, the Labor government has presided over a cost-of-living crisis. Their efforts to ease the pressure on Australian household budgets have been entirely inadequate. As the motion outlines, they have failed to address the high inflation and high interest rates that are crippling Australian household budgets. Rather than the economic mismanagement we have experienced, what Australians need is sensible economic policies to get them through these challenges. Members of the government may come into this building—and I'm sure we'll see them this afternoon—and run off the litany of actions they've taken, actions that have had zero impact, but it is cold comfort for the vast majority of Australians, who are far worse off since the last election.

The Commonwealth Bank report that the member for Groom highlights in this motion illustrates how Australians are spending more on essentials and have little remaining to purchase anything else. Many are struggling even to afford those essentials. In my electorate, the people of the Redlands are struggling with these costs, which continually rise. Over recent weeks I've had many constituents share with me the impact that Labor's cost-of-living crisis is having on their daily lives.

David is a pensioner in Alexandra Hills. Because of rising costs, he has been forced to cut fruit out of his grocery shop. Yvonne from Thornlands has seen her rent increase by $225 a week. A constituent on Coochiemudlo Island used to try each year to save $1,200 for holidays and $500 for home maintenance. She's had to do away with both of those expenses, as the money she's worked so hard to save is now being swallowed up by increasing daily living costs. Margaret has seen her monthly mortgage repayments soar from $2,000 a month to $3,300 a month in the last 18 months. Ron tells me that he and his wife are struggling with increased mortgage rates, home insurance and utilities. Ron reminded me:

The Prime Minister promised he was going to bring down the price of electricity, when is that going to happen?

Ken from Cleveland has sent me his power bills, which show a tripling in the cost since this government took office. Pauline from Birkdale is paying around $480 more this year than she did last year to insure her car. And Gladys from Victoria Point, a self-funded retiree, is concerned that she'll soon have to stop purchasing private health insurance.

There's no doubt that this is a crisis. So many in my electorate are struggling with costs in every possible area of their lives and businesses. This government continues to fail them. Another Redlander who's doing it tough is Christine from Cleveland. She reached out and shared with me some of the struggles that pensioners like her are facing. She wrote:

I'm a 71yo solo female pensioner, and at this late stage of life, I am experiencing a feeling I have rarely felt before—anger. Anger at this government, and its determination to ensure the majority of Australians live in poverty, especially pensioners. everything I have I have had to work bloody hard for. In my younger years I gave up holidays and going out with friends to work 3 jobs as I was determined that I wanted to own a home when I retired. Thank God I did! But now I honestly do not know how I can keep afloat. I live a very frugal life, no extravagance, but now it is a struggle to simply maintain a basic standard of living on the pension. How the hell are pensioners supposed to be able to handle these sky rocketing cost of living increases?

Christine feels that older Australians are now struggling so much that, she writes, 'we don't live; we just exist'.

These stories from members of my community are indicative of the struggles that Australians everywhere are facing due to Labor's cost-of-living crisis. The government's failure to adequately address the issues of high inflation and increased interest rates, and its inability to act on the cost of groceries, fuel, housing, electricity, gas and insurance, is proof positive that it is incapable of leading our nation in these trying economic times. Labor has let inflation stay too high for too long and is putting in place policies that make inflation and productivity worse. Labor inherited a strong economy from the coalition, but, in the last two years, we've seen that situation completely evaporate.

The people of the Redlands deserve better. The constituents who I've talked about this afternoon deserve a lot better from the federal government, and all the people of Australia deserve far better. I commend the member for Groom's motion to the House.

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